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Harvey Milk Park to recognize LGBT leaders

Patrons from The Patch, a gay bar in Wilmington owned at the time by Long Beach resident Lee Glaze, hold bouquets outside the Los Angeles Police Department Harbor Station during the 1968 “flower power” protest against police harassment. The protest is a significant milestone in gay history. It took place a year before the Stonewall Rebellion in New York City. Photo courtesy of Lee Glaze.

LONG BEACH – A former bar owner who was at the dawn of the LGBT civil rights movement by protesting Los Angeles police harassment and an attorney who won a discrimination case against Long Beach police will be the latest inductees to Equality Plaza at Harvey Milk Promenade Park.

A total of four community leaders will have their names added to plaques in the plaza, which was created to recognize local LGBTQ community leaders who have battled discrimination and advocated for equal rights and historic preservation.

The ceremony will take place at the park, 212 E. Third St., on May 13 at 11 a.m..

“I’m so proud the Harvey Milk Park Committee is honoring these individuals who have been long-time activists for equality,” said committee chair Raul A. Añorve.

The celebration is a way to honor Milk’s legacy of fighting for LGBT equality, Añorve said.

Three members of the Harvey Milk Park Selection Committee criticized the city last month after it received a $300,000 grant to remodel the park into an outdoor office. In the artist’s rendering submitted by the city, which was unveiled at a public ceremony announcing the grant, all LGBT elements of the park were omitted from the drawing, which upset the committee members.

The city said the absence in the rendering was a mistake and it would include the committee in all decision making.

The plaza also includes a concrete replica of the soapbox Milk stood on when he spoke to crowds and a 20-foot flagpole flying the gay pride flag.

The park opened four years ago and is the first park in the nation named after Milk.

Each year, the committee meets to nominate and select the honorees for the plaza. Nominees, living or deceased, must identify as a member of the LGBTQ community, and have exceptional or outstanding contribution or service to the greater Long Beach area LGBTQ community.

Here are this year’s inductees:

Lee Glaze fought for LGBT civil rights when lead a nonviolent rebellion in 1968 against Los Angeles police harassment at his Wilmington gay bar the Patch on Pacific Coast Highway after two of his patrons were arrested. The effort by Glaze was notable because it was a full 10 months before the Stonewall Inn riots, a series of violent demonstrations by gay people and drag queens against a New York City police raid. Stonewall was seen by many to be the starting point for the fight for gay rights in the United States. Glaze died in 2013. He was 75.

Stephanie Loftin is a former president of the Long Beach Lambda Democratic club, a founding member of the Long Beach Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce and the first openly lesbian president of the Women’s Lawyers of Long Beach. As an attorney, Loftin defends gay men against lewd conduct arrests by the Long Beach Police Department. In late April, Loftin’s client had his lewd conduct case thrown out by a Superior Court judge, who said the arrest was based on discriminatory enforcement and prosecution. It was the first time in Long Beach court history that a judge dismissed a lewd conduct case for this reason. Loftin has been fighting this issue about 25 years.

Jim Deaton is a former board member and president of the Teacher’s Association of Long Beach and former board member of the Long Beach Lambda Democratic Club. He also was a member of the Long Beach Chapter of PFLAG, Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.

Marsha Naify is a past president of the Long Beach Lambda Democratic Club and the Long Beach Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce and a cochair of the Long Beach LGBT History Project.